The Miles Transfer feature of Philippine Airlines’ Mabuhay Miles

I thought it would be another good news for me in my inbox with Philippine Airlines’ rewards program Mabuhay Miles newest feature, the Miles Transfer, which enables members to transfer Miles to another member’s account. Well, not until I read further and learned the following rules:

“With Miles Transfer, you can now transfer your Miles to another Mabuhay Miles member’s account. Miles can be transferred in increments of 1,000 Miles, at a minimum transfer of 2,000 Miles. Miles Transfer cost is US$15 per 1,000 Miles, plus US$10 processing fee per transaction.”

Consider the following computations below and the fact that the minimum accumulated Miles to redeem a one way ticket from Bacolod to Manila is 3000 miles:
You have a friend who’s only got 1,000 Miles, so you transfer to him 2,000 Miles so he could qualify for one domestic flight. The total payment will be: US$15 per 1,000 Miles x 2 (for 2,000 Miles) = US$30. Add to that the US$10 processing fee, thus the total transfer cost for 2,000 Miles would be US$40. So now your friend has 3,000 Miles, enough to fly him from Bacolod to Manila. But wait, you paid US$40 which is almost Php1,800. This is enough to buy a one way ticket with either Cebu Pacific or Air Philippines. Note that my Mom recently bought a ticket to Manila for less than Php1,800 via Cebu Pacific. The Miles Transfer in this case was not a good deal.

However, another scenario would be like this:
Your friend has accumulated 15,000 Miles in his account and wants to travel to Bangkok which requires 20,000 Miles. He needs 5,000 Miles more to qualify, so you do a Miles Transfer and the computation goes like this: US$15 per 1,000 Miles x 5 (for 5,000 Miles) = US$75 plus US$10 processing fee, the total cost of transfer would be US$85 which is roughly Php3,800. Now this is a better deal, right? At least your friend gets to travel at a lesser cost (actually it was at no cost to him since you were the one who paid anyway) especially if his Miles will be expiring soon.

Continued on The Miles Transfer feature of Philippine Airlines’ Mabuhay Miles (Part 2)